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Saturday, August 26, 2006

Don't be afraid... it's just zucchini!

Zucchini in baked goods sometimes weirds people out, usually because you can see the threads inside, but I don't find that you can really taste it. The zucchini helps keep the item very moist and is a good way to use them up when you have an abundance of them laying around. Grated zucchini portioned out into the amount needed for a recipe freezes well and tends to thaw pretty quick.

I wanted to make a snack cake today and have had this recipe, Spiced Zucchini Bars with Cranberries and Pecans, in my to-try pile for quite a while. We decided we waited way too long to make this after we had our first piece. The tender cake is so moist with a rich caramel-esque sweetness from dark brown sugar. Cinnamon and allspice bring a light spicy flavor which was a great accent to the dried cranberries. The nutty flavor really came through even though there are not a ton of pecans - but dont skimp on toasting them first, they might get lost without that boost in flavor. I also like how visible the bright green strips are weaved throughout each piece.

I like using zucchini in baking, particularly in chocolate zucchini muffins, but I recently tried a more savory/sweet loaf, a cheddar cheese zucchini loaf, and it turned out really well, here's a link to the recipe if you'd like to try it: http://www.chatelaine.com/applications/recipe/article.jsp?recipeId=6153(Don't let the fact that it's from Chatelaine discourage you... :)

I like using zucchini in baking, particularly in chocolate zucchini muffins, but I recently tried a more savory/sweet loaf, a cheddar cheese zucchini loaf, and it turned out really well, here's a link to the recipe if you'd like to try it: http://www.chatelaine.com/applications/recipe/article.jsp?recipeId=6153(Don't let the fact that it's from Chatelaine discourage you... :)

Wow those look good! I just looked at the recipe and I have everything but the flour. I live in The-Middle-Of-No-Where, NM and my little tiny grocery doesn't have stuff like that. Wonder if I could use regular flour or cake flour? I may have to wait until I do my weekly grocery trek to "town".

I actually printed them off and made them Saturday before supper. The bars were wonderful! I subbed ww flour and regular pastry/cake flour and they came out fine. I did learn that when you're using fresh from the garden zucchini, you'll need to grate more than when using store-bought ones because of the higher water content.